Imagination and visualization

           we all imagine , don't we? we have at least once tired  to eskape from reality by using our  imagination. 

Imagination: a land with no borders, that's how i  simply define it.

"logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere " Albert Einstein

What is  imagination?

Have you ever drawed something randomly that you've never seen? or have you ever wrote some randome quotes out of nowhere? and you were fascinated  by what you actually did ? 

It might sound normal, because we're maybe used to it but little did you know the sophisticated coordination inside you brain to creat a randome picture or idea.

How does it work? 

Your brain simply takes the old pictures that he had seen and stitches them all together to creat the new  thing you did.

 old informations-----analysed by the brain------coordination with other informations= new things

visualization

If you ask google, what is visualization? 

The first answer you'll get is; visualization is simply the formation of a mental image of something, ok we get it , but the definititon is way too simple isn't it?

let's restart again!

Elephant

Lion

bird

fish

By reading these words, how did you see them ? 

Did you see elephant as a big animal with a prehensible trunk  and large ears?

well i did too!

and for lion it was large tawny-coloured cat,with a strong body, big head and two fierce eyes

that's how i've always seen it

for fish for sure it's a creature with no legs an that swim, right?

The picture is close, it got the same idea

finally bird, we can never imagine one with no wings and feathers

Exactly!

  So what you were doing is  called visualization , you were visualizing the image of the elephant , lion , fish and bird; creatures that you've already seen ,if it wasn't live at least it was on TV or on some books...

Have you ever heard , "Neurons that fires together , wire together? " Donald Hebb

When you look at an object  thousands of neurons in the part of your brain know as "the posterior cortex", fire.

(How do they fire? https://youtu.be/_HMLZHQpQDI Neurons talk to each other using special chemicals called neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are like chemical words, sending “messages” from one neuron to another. There are many different sorts of neurotransmitters: some stimulate neurons, making them more active; others inhibit them, making them less active)

  These neurons contain various characteristics of the object. for example when you look at an ant: tiny, insect, black ,this is what you notice about it and how you see it. The firing of these  neurons form what we call "Neuronal Ensemble". In this case this is how an aunt would always look to you. In neuroscience this is called  the Hebbian theory (Hebb)"neurons that fire together , wire together".And as we said the aunt would always be identified as an aunt by the specefic neuronal ensemble firing together, try to imagine an aunt now? it still look the same isn't it?

when see an aunt (for example) in real life the same neuronal ensemble fires up, and that's how you can identify that it is an aunt, This theory explains how we can identify objects we've seen before but fails to show how we can visualize an infinite number of objects we've never seen before. But there's a theory called the mental synthesis that says it's all about timing. It states that if you can conjure up the neuronal ensemble of old informations you had then you can imagine new things, and that how we made the previous equation of imagination.

How can visualization benifit our life?

first of all! what do you see when you thing about a succesful life ? you wearing a suit, CEO? Freelancer?... this might be what you really want to be  because you're visualzing a word "SUCCESS" and who doesn't want to be succesful? 

So visualizing can make you know yourself more.

If you keep visualizing yourself living a happy life with enough intensity and clarity, you can trick your mind into the idea of being happy. W hen you visualize hapiness you create the neuronal ensemble that identifies that hapiness(the same thing with success). You creat a happy version of you being. Doing so , makes this connection of neurons more accessible and readily availble . it makes them easier to come by. It's like you creat a new lense to yourself trough, "being the happiest " lense. The whole thing is because our brain can't tell the difference between our imagined experience and our real actual one. If you keep visulizing yourself happy more and more , more it becomes easier to your brain to identify it. 

I think you might know that this can have bad consequences too. Visualization is a strng faculty of our brain if you use it in the right way you win, but if you don't then you might loose it.

The difference between visualisation and imagination

visualizing requires only the sight and mostly it's a memory because you just get to make the image of something you've already seen, imagination involves all the five senses and  emotions, while imagining you can give a picture to something you've never seen before.

                                                                                                                                 HI BA